A lot of the gaming press and gamers have noted the lack of first party content coming out from MS since the start of the current generation largely caused I guess by the closure of the some of their studios. Phil Spencer has recently stated that they haven't invested enough in first party content so this sounds like a statement that MS will look to either open or buy some studios in the coming year.

What studios do you think they might buy? And which ones do you think would/wouldn't be a good fit?

I think MS has made the same mistakes as EA in focusing on the IP's and not the creative talent at the studios. Most likely they could have retained Bungie if they had let them make something other than a Halo game once in a while. If you look at Sony it's clear that the IP's are not as important as many in the industry believe as studios like naughty dog have started new IP's quite frequently to great success so the pattern to good games is the creative team working at Naughty Dog.

Playground Games, Sumo Digital seem like obvious targets to bring inside the first party fold as they are already working on Microsoft properties already.

EAs recent purchase of Respawn makes this a very difficult question to answer. I know people really liked the second game but it's hard to see Titanfall as a massively valuable IP and somehow the studio still sold for over $400 million. How do figure out the value of a studio if somehow Respawn is worth $400million but the best deal Square could get for IO was to let the studio go independent and bring the Hitman IP with them?

As an outsider looking in, it does look like the exclusive game offerings on Xbox are pretty stale. Halo FIVE, Gears FOUR, Forza SEVEN, not exactly bursting with innovation. Given the choice of a Pro or an XBX I'd plump for the Pro every time as I just don't find anything on Xbox that exciting or interesting.

Photek wrote:They may buy PUBG Inc and I’d be very surprised if Rare aren’t working on Fable 4.

Speaking of Rare, I’ve just finished Grabbed by the Ghoulies on Rare Replay. It feels like they’ve got a decent amount of franchises themselves that they could bring back, rather than having to work on another Microsoft sequel

How come they didn’t think to push a new Rare platformer instead of Super Lucky’s Tale? That might have gone over a little better with the fans

EDIT: the best “exclusive” I’ve played on the Xbox is probably Quantum Break. Microsoft should bankroll a new Alan Wake or something.

Preezy wrote:As an outsider looking in, it does look like the exclusive game offerings on Xbox are pretty stale. Halo FIVE, Gears FOUR, Forza SEVEN, not exactly bursting with innovation. Given the choice of a Pro or an XBX I'd plump for the Pro every time as I just don't find anything on Xbox that exciting or interesting.

This is exactly how I feel. I enjoyed the Microsoft franchises on previous Xbox consoles but they just feel dull and uninspiring now. There seems to be alot more going on with the PlayStation.

It seems Microsoft have made a big mistake with management of their developer resources. The problem is, that's something you build over time and takes years to rectify properly.